Apparatus for freezing and cooling foods



oct. .10, 1939. c. A. BULKELEY Erm. 2,175,176

APPARTUS FOR FREEZING AND COOLING FOODS Filed Feb. 21, 1936 I BY' ATToRPatented Oct-.10, 1939 i 0 v i l UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUSFon FaEEzING. AND `cooLlN FooDs e i Claude A. Bulkeley, New York, andMartin H. Olstad, Bayside, N. Y., assignors to Niagara Blower Company,New York, N. Y., a corporation ofk New York Application February 21,1936, Serial No. 65,146 3- Claims. (Cl. 6Z6) This invention relates toan apparatus for coolsired conditions can be obtained. Thus, in the ingmaterials and more particularly to an apparapreferred form of myinvention the main cooler tus for freezing foodstuffs and also storingfoodis located in a freezing room and in use this cooler stuffs at lowtemperature and high relative humidcan be rotated from freezing tocooling and ity so as to prevent spoilage and in which the aphumidifyingor plain low temperature storage. In 5 paratus can be easily adjusted asconditions deaddition the apparatus shown includes a second mand, toprovide any combination of (1) freezing cooler operatively connectedwith this cooler -and foodstuffs, (2) storing foods at low temperaturelocated in a cooling room. By the use of this and (3) cooling andhumidifying, and in which the secondary cooler any desired condition canbe apparatus can be used in any one of these capacimaintained in thecooling room and hence while lo ties alone. the primary cooler is usedfor freezing, the sec- It is one of the principal objects of thisinvenondary cooler can be used for cold storage or tio'n to provide anapparatus for freezing foodfOr Cooling and humidfyirlg SO that `anydesired stairs in which the necessity for an extensive sorlflbination offreezing. cooling and humidifying area of freezing Surface in thefreezing room or plain low temperature storage can be obtained` 15 isavoided and in which the air is refrigin either Toom? erated byrecirculating it through coils in which The accompanying drawing 1.5 aVertlcal Sec" a Oma-i sulfur dioxide, Freon or other gaseous tionthrough a freezing and cooling room showing refrigerant is directlyexpanded so as to obtain A coolers embodying my invention installedtherein. the extreme low temperatures necessary and in The numeral Irepresents a* freezmg room and 20 the numeral 2 represents a coolingroom the which the coils are prevented from icing up by i r constantlyWashing them with brine -whih is freezing room being as a rule muchsmaller than a ed over th c .1 at h. h e1 t a t the cooling room andbeing used to freeze food- Spr y e .01 s 1g. v o l y so s o stuffs andthe cooling room being much larger prevent the formation of any ice orfrost thereon.

and being used to either hold the foodstuffs in a o. Thls Washmg of thec0115 also greatly Increases frozen condition at low temperature or holdthe a the @te of heat transfer Petween the C011 and foodstuffs at lowtemperature with relative huthe air because of the superior rate of heattransmidity so as to prevent deterioration of the same. fer from thecoils to the brine and from the brine In freezing foodstuffs in thefreezing rom i'lthe t0 the alf as compared With a' direct transfer 0ffoodstuffs are piled in tiers in any suitable man- 30 heat from the airt0 the coils- The spraying 0f 'ner and the air is maintained at such 10Wtemthe coils with brine also creates a whirling film perature as toquickly freeze the f foods. The and high turbulence on the coils withresulting foodstuffs stored in the storage room are likewise improvedheat transfer qualities. held at a freezing or low temperature with highIt is another object of this invention to provide relative humidity inthe cooling room. The high such an apparatus which can be adjusted toprorelative humidity in the cooling room is desirable vide any conditiondesired in the handling of to prevent loss of weight or discoloration ofthe foodstuffs, which --flexibility greatly facilitates the articlesbeing stored therein. use of the apparatus in different seasons or underThe air in the cooling room I is maintained at different conditions.Thus, the apparatus can be a low temperature by drawing the same through40 used solely in the freezing of foodstuffs. Itcan the casing 3 of abrine spray cooler A. For this be used in the plain low temperaturestorage of. purpose suitable air inlet louvers 4 `are providedfoodstuffs and it can be used solely in the'cooling in the bottom of thecasing 3 and fans 5 are and humidifying of foodstuffs, thehumidification located in the top of this casing and driven bypreventing loss of weight or" discoloration due to anv electric motor '6so as to draw air through the 45 the drying out of the foodstuffs. inletlouvers 4 and casing 3, the air being dis- This rotation in use of themachine from freezcharged through outlet ducts 1. Within the casing tocooling and humidifying or plain low teming 3 is mounted a series ofhairpin coils 8, the perature storage is accomplishedby very simpleopposite ends ofi which connect with an outlet regulating meanscontrolling the amount of reheader 9 and an inlet header I0. Inthesehair- 50 frige'rant admitted to the cooler. `pin coils or tubes arefrigerating liquid is direct- Another object of the present inventionis to4 1y expanded, such liquid being ammonia, Freon, increase theflexibility of the apparatus as above sulfur dioxide or the like. Theliquid refrigerant i set forth by providing additional means located issupplied to these coils by means vof any standin another room so thatany combinationv of de-i` ard compressor-condensersystem, such being diagrammatically illustrated a's comprising a compressor II withdrawingthe gaseous expanded refrigerant from the outlet header 9 through a.line I5 and compressing and passing it through a. condenser I3 in whichit is cooled and condensed and passes into a receiver I4 from which itpasses through a line I2 to control of. a thermostat I6. To effect suchcontrol an expansion valve I'I is provided in the liqmostat I6 islocated in the freezing room I and controls the expansion valve I9 so asto maintain the temperature of the freezing room at the setting of thethermostat I6. In freezing foodstuffs However, the setting of thethermostat I6 is adjustable so as to provide any desired condition inthe freezing room I. Thus, if a low freezing temuse the rodm I for plaincold storage the thermostat I6 is set to the temperature desired and thethermostat will then function the expansion valve I9 to maintain thistemperature. If it is desired The brine collects in the bottom of thecasing 3 and is withdrawn through the pump suction 24 of a pump 25 whichis driven by an electric motor 26. The outlet from the pump 25 conn-ectswith a three-way diaphragm valve 28 rate of heat transfer from thehairpin tubes 8 to the air stream.

the inlet header I underlv loss of Weight being frozen.

To secure this additional flexibility a brine is generally similar tothe the air passing through the brinespray cooler B in temperature.

expansion coils 8 and maintain sprayed with water or brine. For thispurpose, as with the brine spray cooler A, water or brine is sprayedagainst the upper and lower vsides of the hairpin tubes 36 from aplurality of upper and lower spray nozzles 50, I. The spray nozzles 5Uand 5I are carried by upper and lower brine pipes and 53 and brine issupplied to these pipes from a brine inlet pipe 54 which connects withthe outlet of a pump 55. an electric motor 56 and draws the water orbrine from the bottom of the casing of the spray cooler B through a pumpsuction 51.

' It has been found that the air in the freezing room I can bemaintained at the desired low temperature for freezing foodstuffs withthe use of a brine spray cooler A upon it, such as bringing in a largequantity of In its action, the brine spray cooler A provides a means forquickly recirculating the air in the freezing room and passing this Thispump is drivenbyA air directly through tubes in which ammonia or thelike is expanded and which are maintained at such low temperature as tocool the-air well be low the freezing point of the foods to be frozen.Further, by subjecting these tubes tothe constant washing, at highvelocity of sprays, from both sides, the rate of transfer of the heatfrom the air stream to the hairpin tubes is greatly increased, inasmuchas the transfer of the heat from the air to the whirling layer of wateris rapid and also the transfer of heat from this whirling layer of waterto the pipes is effected at a high rate of speed. Further, since thewater is constantly being washed off the pipes the effective area ofcontact between the water and the air is greatly increased. The washingaction of the water or brine on the tubes also prevents the formation ofany ice even though the temperature of the tubes is below the freezingpoint of the brine solution being used.

Furthermore, it will be seen that by adjusting the thermostat I6 thetemperature maintained in the room l can be as desired. When it is notdesired to freeze foodstuffs the thermostat can be adjusted to maintaina higher temperature and under these conditions the brine sprayingacross the air stream wl maintain the air in the room I at a highrelative humidity so that foodstuffs, such as eggs, do not lose inweight and other foodstuffs, such as meats, do not lose in weight andalso do not become discolored.

It will be understood that the coils 8 can be iiooded with theexpansible liquid refrigerant, such as ammonia, in which case the coils8 would be maintained filled with liquid ammonia by means of a oat valveand the thermal member iB and expansion valve l1 would, of course, beeliminated. The magnetic valve actuated by the thermostat I6 would thenbe located inthe suction line l5.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the brine spray cooler in thefreezing room provides a verysimple and effective means of freezingfoodstuffs placed in this room and can also be rotated in use fromfreezing to cooling and humidifying or plain low temperature storage.Further, by the addition of the brine spray cooler B in the cooling roomany desired condition of temperature and high relative humidity can bemaintained .in this cooling room Without necessitating the employment ofadditional refrigerating equipment. Further, this brine spray cooler Bin the cooling room can be rotated in use from freezing to either acoolingor humidifying use or plain cold storage use, as with the brinespray cooler A in the freezing room.

The installation as shown therefore provides an extremely simple andcompact apparatus and method for freezing and storing foodstuffs.

By the term air as used in the following claims is meant to include anyatmosphere in which foodstuffs are or may be stored, suchl as carbondioxide, as well as normal air.

We claim asv our invention: y

1. A cooling system for freezing foods in a freezing room, comprising acasing, cooling means in said casing, means for passing an air streamthrough said casing and circulating the air stream over said foods,means for supplying a cooling medium to said cooling means andmaintaining the temperature of the cooling means and the temperature ofall of the air leaving said coils well below the freezing point of saidfoods,

means for passing a liquid over the exterior of said cooling means, asecond casing, a cooling 'coil in said second casing, means forcollecting the liquid in said rst casing after passing'l over thecooling means therein and passing it directly through the coil in saidsecond casing, means for passing an air stream through said secondcasing, means for controlling the amount of cooling medium admitted tothe cooling means in said first casing in res nse to the-temperaturemaintained by the air admitted to the coil of said second casing inresponse to the temperature maintained by the air leaving said secondcasing.

2. A cooling system for freezing foods in a freezing room, comprising arst casing, a refrigerant expansion coil in said casing, means forpassing an air stream through said casing and circulating the air streamover`said foods, means for conducting cooled refrigerant to said coiland permitting it to expand therein and, maintain the temperature ofsaid cooling coil and the temperature of all of the air leaving saidcoils well below the freezing point of said foods, means for spray` inga liquid over the outside of said coil whereby the heat of said liquidis absorbed by said re-v a cooling coil in said frigcrant, a secondcasing, second casing, means in said first casing for collecting theAliquid after being sprayed over the expansion coil therein, a pumpconducting the collected liquid from said first casing directly throughthe coil in said second casing, means for conducting the liquid from thecoil in said second casing to said means for spraying the liquid 10.leaving said first casing and means for controlling the amount of liquidover the coil in said first casing to be recooled,A

means for by-passing variable amounts of liquid from said pump to saidmeans for spraying the liquid over the coil in said first casing to berecooled, means for passing an air stream through said second casing,means for spraying liquid over the coils in said second casing,collecting the liquid so sprayed and means for returning this collectedspray water to the means for spraying the liquid over the coils in thesecond casing.

3. A cooling system for freezing foods in' a freezing room, comprising acasing, cooling means in said casing, means for supplying a coolingmedium to said cooling means and maintaining the temperature of thecooling means well below the freezing point of said foods, means forpassing an air stream through saidcaslng and cir-- culating the airstream over said foods, means for passing a liquid over the exterior ofsaid cooling means, a second casing, a cooling coil in said secondcasing, means for collecting the liquid in said rst casing after passingover the cooling means therein and passing it directly through the coilin said second casing, -means for passing a liquid over the coils insaid second casing, means for passing an air stream through said secondcasing, means for controlling the amount of cooling medium admitted tothe cooling means in said rst casing in response tothe temperaturemaintained by the air leaving said first casing and means forcontrolling the amount of liquid admitted to the coil ofsaid secondcasing in response to the temperature maintained by the air leaving saidsecond casing.

CLAUDE A. BULKELEY.

MARTIN H. OLSTAD.

means for

